Alejandro Davidovich Fokina has spoken about his decision to employ an underarm serve during his match against Holger Rune at Wimbledon.

Fokina and Rune faced each other in a tense five-set battle yesterday, Saturday, July 9, in their third round at the SW19. The match lasted four hours, but the most thrilling moment was arguably saved for its last few minutes.

As the final set went to a tiebreak, Fokina was leading 8-5 against the world No. 6, and was particularly strong on serve. Rune was able to equalize though, taking it to 8-8. Nevertheless, the Spaniard was still very much in the game until he suddenly decided to go for an underarm serve in an attempt to catch his Danish opponent off guard.

However, the decision backfired massively, with Rune striking a return winner that put him ahead. From that point on it was over for Fokina, as Rune won the match on the next point, with the total score being 6-3, 4-6, 3-6, 6-4, 7-6(10-8). 

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Fokina unsure about reasons behind his decision

Speaking after the match, the 24-year-old admitted that he lost his nerve,

"I have to accept what happened. I sh*t myself and I did not want to play that point"

He also tried to explain his reasoning behind opting for an underarm serve, but was ultimately unable to come up with a clear answer, suggesting that his nervousness and the noise of the crowd clouded his headspace in the moment,

"I cannot explain what is going through my mind there in that moment because a lot of things are going through your mind, everybody is shouting and you are nervous."

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Rune comments on Fokina serve

In the post-match press conference, the 20-year-old also admitted that he was not expecting Fokina to play the point in that way, saying

"Yeah, that was crazy. That was very unexpected, for sure. I don't know. In a way, it was nice, because he was serving really well during the match. But also, you know, it's pressure, because imagine I missed that one. That would feel awful."

Whilst surprising Rune may have been Fokina's intention in choosing the underarm serve, it did not work out, and the sixth seed added that he would not have gone for that serve,

"No. No, I wouldn't do it. But again, every player has a different style. You know, I mean, if he made it, it would have been the right shot."

Rune will face twenty-first seed Grigor Dimitrov in the round of 16 tomorrow, Monday, July 10.